Extractivism and Labour Control: Reflections of Turkey’s ‘Coal Rush’ in Local Labour Regimes

Abstract

This study analyses labour processes and local labour control strategies in the extractive industries and regions as the reflections of state-capital-labour-nature relations. I argue that, for the analysis of labour control in extractive industries, there is a need to pay attention to (i) the significance of the natural resource for global capital accumulation processes and for the development policies of the state; (ii) the formation of the local labour market through proletarianization of rural population and other means of labour supply; (iii) the organization of work considering both natural limits (such as geological structure of the basin) and workforce composition; and (iv) the use of local political, institutional and community dynamics. Drawing upon the fieldwork carried out in Soma Coal Basin, this paper shows how Turkey’s coal rush shapes local labour control strategies.

The social reproduction of natural resource extraction and gendered labour regimes in rural Turkey

“…Following Bernstein's expanded definition, I define classes of extractive labour in Turkey beyond wage work to include petty commodity producers in the process of the dispossession, family farmers, agricultural workers, seasonal (migrant) agricultural workers and workers of the extractive investments. Firstly, the growth of natural resource industries has constituted a salient 'employment opportunity' for the young male members of the recently dispossessed families (Adaman et al, 2019;Çelik, 2021a).…”

“…Following Bernstein's expanded definition, I define classes of extractive labour in Turkey beyond wage work to include petty commodity producers in the process of the dispossession, family farmers, agricultural workers, seasonal (migrant) agricultural workers and workers of the extractive investments. Firstly, the growth of natural resource industries has constituted a salient ‘employment opportunity’ for the young male members of the recently dispossessed families (Adaman et al, 2019; Çelik, 2021a). Instead of a complete detachment from land and agriculture, these households have maintained agricultural production through the paid or unpaid work of women in one or more of the following forms: wage work, petty commodity production and subsistence production.…”

“…Firms investing in Soma are larger and have a purchase guarantee. Therefore, in contrast to the small‐scale or illegal mining companies in other mining towns, wage levels are relatively high and paid regularly and all the workers are registered (Çelik, 2021a). The second and main means of labour supply is the proletarianization of local farmer families as a result of neoliberal transformation of tobacco farming.…”

“…These investments, on the one hand, led to further dispossession of small‐scale farmers because of the expropriation and devastation of private farmlands. On the other hand, they constituted employment opportunities for the male members of the rural households (Çelik, 2021a). Yet, in many instances, this has not led to complete detachment of rural households from land and agricultural production, which has been maintained through the super‐exploitation of paid and unpaid work of women.…”

“…The paper draws on a multi‐sited fieldwork carried out in the Soma Coal Basin, Western Anatolia, Turkey, between 2015 and 2018 and virtual interviews conducted in the summer of 2021. Between 2015 and 2017, I conducted semi‐structured interviews with miners, local activists and representatives of local community institutions to gather their reflections and perspectives on Turkey's coal policies in the labour processes and local labour regime in the Basin (Çelik, 2017, 2021a). During this first phase of the fieldwork, I observed that increasing coal investments and neoliberal agricultural policies had transformed the agrarian structure in the region and the local population's relation to land.…”